Kasich: Repeal ACA but not all of it

Ohio Gov. John Kasich wants to be very clear: He wants to repeal Obamacare.

Just not the part he likes.

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A political firestorm broke out Monday when the The Associated Press quoted Kasich as saying that Obamacare repeal was “not gonna happen.” That view is almost unheard of — at least in public — among most Republicans, let alone those who might run for the White House in 2016.

Kasich said AP got it wrong, and he called POLITICO Monday night to correct the record. He said he was talking specifically about repeal of the expansion of Medicaid — which Ohio has implemented — and not of the Affordable Care Act more broadly.

Kasich is the latest high-profile Republican to struggle with the implications of repealing Obamacare as Americans have begun to benefit from its provisions. In a debate last week, Sen. Mitch McConnell advocated “pulling out Obamacare root and branch.” But Kentucky’s successful exchange, through which enrollees can receive federal subsidies to buy health insurance, “is a website,” McConnell said, that “can continue.”

Tens of thousands of newly eligible people have enrolled in Medicaid in Ohio, and the state expects 366,000 to sign up by next summer. Kasich infuriated conservatives when he bypassed the state’s Republican-controlled Legislature to expand Medicaid last year.

“The opposition to it was really either political or ideological,” Kasich told the AP of Medicaid expansion. “I don’t think that holds water against real flesh and blood, and real improvements in people’s lives.”

Kasich said he’s focused on winning reelection in a few weeks. He faced minimal political backlash in Ohio over Medicaid expansion, and went unchallenged in his primary. But in a White House race, he’d be competing for support among Republican voters who still hate the law — and possibly with contenders like Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who still promises in his stump speeches to “repeal every word” of Obamacare.

“I have never viewed Medicaid expansion as part and parcel of Obamacare,” Kasich said. “It was one feature that was contained in Obamacare.”

Still, he acknowledged that his interpretation “may be an argument or a disagreement” among Republicans.

Republican governors have generally taken a more nuanced approach to the health law than their congressional counterparts. Kasich’s neighbor, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, is awaiting a decision from the feds about his proposed alternative Medicaid expansion. Other Republican governors thought to have White House prospects, including Chris Christie in New Jersey, Susana Martinez in New Mexico and Brian Sandoval in Nevada, also expanded Medicaid.